Montclair Creates COVID-19 Task Force To Help Community

MONTCLAIR, NJ — Montclair is creating a COVID-19 Recovery Task Force that will be charged with helping to get the community back on its feet amid the pandemic, Mayor Sean Spiller announced Monday.

The 25-member task force will be charged with working alongside community stakeholders and liaisons from “all levels of government” to help Montclair residents, small businesses and nonprofits survive the coronavirus crisis, officials said.

Spiller said the “ongoing and unprecedented nature” of the coronavirus pandemic led him to create a specialized task force that will add to actions already taken in the township. Those include:

• The awarding of $150,000 in small business grants
• A $60,000 grant to Toni’s Kitchen to help meet demand
• Parking fee suspensions
• Deferral of property tax payments
• An extensive contact tracing program administered by the Montclair Department of Health and Human Services
• Increased testing capacity in partnership with Essex County
• A new partnership with Governor Phil Murphy’s office to provide more pre and post-holiday testing

The task force will be co-chaired by Montclair residents David Pascrell and Shante Palmer.

“The mayor’s COVID-19 Recovery Task Force will bring to bear the enormous talent, spirit and creativity of our community as we continue to combat the most pressing public health and economic crises of our time,” said Palmer, the director of government relations at Montclair State University.

“I look forward to working with the mayor, fellow task force members and residents to help jumpstart our recovery in Montclair,” said Pascrell, an attorney and co-chair of the government and regulatory affairs department at Gibbons P.C.

“I'm grateful to the mayor for doing the work and soliciting input from many of us to form this much-needed task force,” council member Peter Yacobellis said. “This is a talented group, representing cross functional expertise and it couldn't come at a more critical time with cases skyrocketing in Montclair.”

Spiller said that Montclair responded to an unprecedented challenge with the “compassion, ingenuity and resilience that the township is known for.”

“The COVID-19 Task Force will be laser-focused on identifying needs in our community, cultivating public/private partnerships, and reviewing the whole-of-government response to the coronavirus pandemic to help Montclair robustly address this and prepare for future public health crises,” Spiller said.

The group will hold its first meeting on Tuesday, Nov. 17.

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